I grew up a huge fan of the WWE.
I always say when it comes to dream matches, that is not up to me: that's up to the WWE Universe. That's up to the fans. But there is a guy on 'SmackDown' that I have yet to wrestle yet that's certainly gonna happen at some point, and that's Randy Orton.
For anyone to say that WWE is fake or anything like that, no sir! It's very physical, and the injuries are real; the blood is real.
In all the years with WWE, I never really got to really establish the branding of The Showstopper as well as I would have liked to.
The WWE Championship is the greatest championship in the history of this sport. It has the most history of anything.
WWE prepares you for so much other stuff in entertainment.
Back in 2004, Vince McMahon basically told me to consider WWE to be my playground, and that I could come and play any time I wanted to.
Whether it's NASCAR or whether it's football, or whether it's the NBA, any time something spills over to the point where somebody makes a WWE reference, I always think it's a good thing.
The strategy is obviously a business decision to have limited advertising on the WWE Network. We want subscribers to know that there won't be commercial breaks during scheduled programming, so your shows won't be interrupted.
I play a character in the WWE and everybody hates my character. I'm the evil villain bad guy. Whenever people meet me, they're like, 'Wow, you're such a nice guy. We never expected that.'
I didn't have any pedigree or any last name that would get me an opportunity to get looked at by WWE.
If you've never been to a live WWE event, it's pretty awesome. A few hours of action-packed family fun. Bring everybody, from your babies to your grandparents.
There were times that we'd be in the locker room there before everyone else, and a guy would walk in, say, 'Is this the Kliq locker room?' So we'd draw with a sharpie on the back of a program and write 'Kliq locker room'. I can promise you that none of those signs were ever on WWE letterhead.
There is no 'off' being John Cena: it's always on. In a way, I think that has helped me, because over the years I have been able to be humble. I have been able to be humiliated in front of the WWE universe in a good way.
WWE is my home, and I will always stay with the WWE in some part, whether it's an ambassador, or maybe one day you'll see Nikki Bella as a GM, and no one can touch me.
The truth is, pro wrestling is such an incredibly vast, incredibly surreal world. There's no telling how many words could be written about the subject - especially when the subject involves WWE.
When we started training with WWE, coaches were impressed and asked if we had had boxing training. I said no, it was all soccer. As a defender, I had to learn to stay on my feet, track backwards, and I feel all the movement I do in the ring was helped by my soccer background.
There's a huge fan base behind NXT, which is cool because that opens up the door to younger talent that maybe at one point thought that it was impossible to ever get into WWE, but now, there it is.
The Wonderful pistachios campaign is a great example - I don't involve myself with a project I don't feel passionate about. I could talk your ear off about internal statistics for WWE and what we have planned for the future. Why do I know that stuff? Because I like to do all that stuff.
There's definitely no hard feelings with WWE. I'm very thankful to them for the opportunity that was given to me.
I've been in the ring with so many guys, and I've been in the ring quite a bit with Randy. The WWE live events are... a little bit different from what you see on TV. It seems to flow better; more matches, longer wrestling.
When you lose your passion to be a WWE Superstar, there's no point in going back.
At one point, I left Mexico to continue my career globally, and a new star came about. He is known now as Myzteziz, but back then he was known as Mistico, and then Sin Cara when he joined WWE. I would have to say the fans, in their eyes, see a lot of similarities between us.
It was always one of my favorite things, the action figures, the video games, when I was with WWE, even though I'm not a gamer. I would literally go out and buy the games just so I could play myself.
My mom was like, 'What did I do as a mom for you to want to become a wrestler?' They just didn't understand, and it's really hard to explain what made me love wrestling so much. There's something about it that made me fall in love, and ever since I laid my eyes on it, I knew I wanted to be a professional wrestler in the WWE.
WWE has given me an out where, any days off that I have, they allow me to work on outside projects.
You just can't compare the WWE to anything else when it comes to sports entertainment. There is nothing like the WWE, nothing like this machine I am working for and I'm proud to work for.
I would like to do commercials, or even work for WWE if they called me. I wouldn't want to go back on the air or manage again, but I would like to be a spokesperson and do stuff like that.
I want to be known as A.J. Styles, the WWE Superstar that he is, and have amazing matches, make memories - I think that's the goal.
I've been around in WWE for quite a while now and before that had - even in Florida - I've been all around the world and seen every type of style in opponent; the way I was trained and stuff, I got a lot more tricks up my sleeve.
I missed the NFL by an inch. IRS problems... No money coming in, and not that many options left because I signed that stupid no-compete clause with WWE. I had no one to blame but myself.
Being so doopity! It's awesome. And I think it's just one of the reasons that people should get hitched on with the WWE Network. It's more than just these network specials like 'WrestleMania' and like 'SummerSlam'. It's programming geared for the WWE universe.
Pro wrestling was there, and I was good at it, thank God. I started getting a lot of offers, but unfortunately, at WWE I was under a tight leash. I think it had a lot to do with The Rock making the transition, and me possibly being the next guy - you know, the company didn't want to lose another top performer.
It's the beauty of WWE. We use all our platforms to cross-promote each other and vice versa.
I busted my tail for so long, I'm just glad it's getting recognized now as part of the WWE. Because let's face it, the WWE is the biggest company out there when it comes to wrestling. I'm just happy that I'm being recognized as somebody who works hard, I guess.
WWE doesn't owe us anything.